Thursday, 20 June 2013

For most readers, once they finish a book that they
have enjoyed, it is the characters that make the strongest impression on them.
They may well read more stories about these characters based on their affection
for them.

But this is how they feel at the end of the book.

When you’re reading a book for the first time, you
don’t know whether you will feel that way.

As a writer you may approach writing a story with a
character in mind, creating a three dimensional person in your head and only
then finding something for them to do.

Or, you may come up with an engrossing premise that
touches on various themes and ideas that interest you, and only then do you
populate the story with characters who will bring those events to life.

It doesn’t really matter how you go about it; each
writer will have their own approach that works for them. However, the reader’s
experience of story is not quite so open.

When someone wants to know about a book (maybe the
one you’ve written) they don’t ask, Oh, who
is it about? They ask, What is
it about?

So the first instinct is to inquire about subject
matter, premise, setting and things of that nature. In effect, what happens in
this story that will be of interest to me?

But is it possible to have an interesting story
when you know little or nothing about the character? Undoubtedly it is, if the
events are interesting enough.

For example, if I tell you that there’s a guy at
work who got into a fight with a Michael Jackson impersonator, that in itself
is weird enough to hold a person’s attention. This almost perfect lookey-likey
of MJ (silver glove, fedora, epaulets) comes into the office and we think it
must be someone’s birthday and this is one of those singing telegrams, but it
turns out Fred in acquisitions has been having an affair with MJ’s girlfriend
(a Beyonce-style strippagram) and MJ wasn’t happy about it, so he smacked Fred
around while singing ‘Beat It’ and then moonwalked out of the office.

Now, I’ve made the story as absurd as possible so
that Fred has the least interesting role to play. You don’t know anything about
Fred, but even if you did, it probably wouldn’t add anything.

However, this approach only works if you keep
things extraordinary (although not necessarily as extraordinary as my story),
and even then only for a limited time. Eventually the reader will want to know
who this Fred guy is.

But that’s okay. As the further adventures of Fred
are revealed, you will at the same time start learning who he is. It can’t
really be avoided. What he does and how
he reacts will allow the reader to start judging him, as we judge people in
real life.

So as you can see at the start of the story the
reader is only interested in what the story is about, right?

Well, not exactly.

Let’s say my story is about Godzilla rampaging
through London during the 2012 Olympics. That gives you a pretty good idea what
the story is about and either you’re into that kind of tale or you’re not.

But here are two versions of that same story:

1. It’s about a teenage girl who has to save the
city of London from an attack by Godzilla.

2. It’s about a super soldier who has to save the
city of London from an attack by Godzilla.

As I change the person at the centre of the story,
even though the premise remains the same, it has a big effect on how you view
it. And it also gives you a much better idea of the kind of story it’s going to
be.

Without knowing the detailed backgrounds of these
characters you are instantly aware of the difference in approach. Because in
effect you view the premise through the eyes of the main character. The battle
a young girl faces will be very different to the one faced by a seasoned
soldier.

So what if I add more details? If I were to tell you
the girl was very pretty with long red hair, or that the soldier was angry
about his wife leaving him, would that change your view of the story?

Those details certainly give you a better picture
of the character, but they don’t affect how they’ll be approaching the story,
at least not in an obvious way. They may in fact have some impact we’re not yet
aware of (maybe Godzilla has a thing for redheads, or from a certain angle
Godzilla reminds the soldier of his wife and fires him up), but if the reader
can’t see the connection then it makes no difference.

On the other hand, if I told you the girl is in a
wheelchair or that the soldier has a phobia of lizards, how about now?

Information directly related to the objective will
give you a stronger sense of the kind of story this will be. Unrelated
information about the character, won’t. Bear in mind I haven’t given you any
idea of the personalities or characteristics of either MC. Learning to love a
character comes from seeing them act in context, you can’t win over readers by
telling them how great and interesting a character is going to be, they have to
see it for themselves.

What a story is about is closely connected to who
it’s about and very much dependent on whose eyes we see it through. While there
are going to be a multitude of traits your characters possesses that will
appeal (or not) to the reader over the course of a book, it’s the ones that
directly relate to the mission they will be faced with that need to be
addressed first.

13
comments:

I feel whenever people ask me what my book is about, I start by describing the main character. If I wrote a new character into the same premise, the story wouldn't be the same one anymore. Different characters bring about different stories, even if the structure is the same.

I agree and found your thoughts to be quite interesting. If I may add, sometimes for me it's the writer's style throughout the story that makes me connect closely with or perhaps even dislike a character. Alice Hoffman is one of those writers, that brings me so close to her characters (almost as if I've slipped within the story) and she does it seamlessly.

You've written a lot of great posts, but I think this is my favorite. It's so important to get the right balance between plot and character - both have to work together to win over the reader, and making them as unusual and intriguing as possible certainly helps. Thanks! :-)

@Karen - i think that's something that works (or doesn't) across the breadth of a story. You need to spend some time with a book. Unfortunately the modern approach seems to be hook 'em on the first page.

@Lexa - thanks!

@Rachna - They ask what it's about, but I think they want it from the perspective of the character.

@Michael - and i think different people will be drawn to the different approaches of particular characters.

Great thoughts. It is interesting to think through that fine line between character-driven and plot-driven work. If you can find that sweet spot between the two, you're gold.I'm an aspiring novelist and have just started a blog. Check it out:http://preppybohemia.blogspot.com/